Nanaquaket Bridge Receives Structure Test

Work crews from an out-of-state bridge diagnotics company took readings of Nanaquaket Bridge Thursday morning, closing down one lane of the road for a few hours. They began their work on Wednesday, and the lane reopened shortly after noontime.

Unrelated to the by the Department of Transportation, Ashton Pentico, structural engineer with Bridge Diagnostics, Inc. of Boulder, CO, said the work they did Thursday is part of their contract with AFCom, a firm based in Providence.

Pentico said the specialized "UBitz" truck onsite has a crane that maneuvered underneath Nanaquaket Bridge and used its instruments to take "capacity" readings. He noted there was nothing unusual as the diagnostic is routine under their contract.

"We just take the data and they do the number-crunching back at the office," he said.

Pentico said the Nanaquaket Bridge, built in 1958, is a pre-stressed box beam design.